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People row boats on Chidorigafuchi Moat, north-west of the Imperial Palace in Tokyo. The cherry blossom bloom is now moving northwards and many Japanese people are waiting for news of it arriving in their regions
Photograph: Kimimasa Mayama/EPA
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A man poses with his dog in front of cherry blossoms at Inokashira Park
Photograph: Philip Fong/AFP/Getty Images
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A woman dressed in Japanese traditional kimono poses with cherry blossoms in full bloom in Tokyo
Photograph: Behrouz Mehri/AFP/Getty Images
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A woman takes a selfie with cherry blossoms along the Meguro river in Tokyo
Photograph: Behrouz Mehri/AFP/Getty Images
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People ride a boat past cherry blossoms at Inokashira Park in Tokyo
Photograph: Philip Fong/AFP/Getty Images
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Visitors on a boat next to blooming cherry blossoms at Chidorigafuchi Park in Tokyo
Photograph: Kim Kyung-Hoon/Reuters
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Pedestrians wear masks to help curb the spread of coronavirus in Tokyo. Japan’s favourite flower started blooming earlier this month and has already peaked in many places, setting the earliest records in more than a dozen cities across the country
Photograph: Kiichiro Sato/AP
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Visitors in Inokashira Park in Tokyo. This year peak bloom was reached on 26 March in the ancient capital of Kyoto, the earliest since the Japan Meteorological Agency started collecting the data in 1953 and 10 days ahead of the 30-year average. Similar records were set this year in more than a dozen cities across Japan
Photograph: Philip Fong/AFP/Getty Images
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Cherry trees are sensitive to temperature changes and the timing of their blooming can provide valuable data for climate change studies
Photograph: Koji Sasahara/AP
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Visitors walk under cherry blossoms in Tokyo
Photograph: Eugene Hoshiko/AP
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Japan’s cherry blossoms used to reach their peak bloom just as the country celebrates the start of its new school and business year. Yet that date has been creeping earlier and now most years the blossoms are largely gone before the first day of school
Photograph: Koji Sasahara/AP
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Cherry blossoms have regularly been used in Japanese poetry and literature, with their fragility seen as a symbol of life, death and rebirth
Photograph: Kiichiro Sato/AP
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A bench stands empty underneath cherry blossoms in a closed zone of Inokashira Park in Tokyo
Photograph: Philip Fong/AFP/Getty Images
